Deal or No Deal - Day 3

Day 3 started off with an introduction to the lighting team, they have one main man (Kevin) who controls the lighting deck and a lighting director. Also in the room with them are two camera technicians who throughout the show adjust the gain, colour balance and a lot more technical things (!) on the cameras (the camera operators in the studio have no control over these settings. If they did every camera would look different as they are each positioned in different places and focus on different things. There are also lighting changes throughout the show so they need to be adjusted as and when these changes happen.)

Kevin first talked me through the lighting desk and explained it is all preset for each stage of the show so with the touch of button he can change the whole studio to 'the bankers call' or the end of show etc. We then looked at the lighting rig in the studio in which I noticed instead of using tracing paper as a filter they use a wire

mesh to soften the light. They also position it in a certain way for example on the contestants as they do not want to light up the desk and just the contestants face they place the wire mesh where the light will land on the desk. Therefore softening this and lighting up the contestants faces.

After watching Kevin do the lighting for first out of 4 shows we were recording that day I was then with Greg the Floor Manager. He also had an AFM (Assistant Floor Manager) Eddie. Their main roles were to ensure everything on the floor of the studio was running smoothly. For example today Eddie had to get all 22 contestants through make up and on to the studio floor, then ensure they had all picked out a ball to get their box. His main worry then is getting Noel on set in time and encouraging audience to clap as and when. He also listens to direction from the gallery as to where the director wants friends and family placed in the audience etc. After the show has finished they also tend to re-record a few snippets of the show if there were any glitches first time around so the floor managers job is to listen to the director via talk back and action these re-recordings. Eddie also explained to me that the Floor Managers job on Deal or no Deal wasn't the same as others for example in some studios you would collecting props and getting people on and off set etc.

For the rest of the afternoon I was then with the Director Rich. As I'd been in there before with Dan the vision mixer he only had to run through a few things for example what he's looking out for and the way he's always looking for the next shot. This was show 3 of the day and was due to finish at 3.45, however I knew they were recording another show so decided to ask head of audience Charis if she wanted any help with the last show. She was very thankful and I helped seat audience and then book future audience until the end of the last show.

Last day tomorrow and I don't want to leave!